Albert Joseph Moore A.R.W.S.

Private Collection, New York, circa 1930s
By descent through the family to the present owner (his daughter)

Boston, 1884

Good condition, hinged to the mat at upper right and left corners, colors are bright and fresh.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The present work is most likely a previously unlocated exhibition watercolor entitled Hairpins related to the preparatory sketches for the large oil painting Summer Night (circa 1884-90) in the collection of the Walker Art Museum in Liverpool (see Roblyn Asleson, Albert Moore, London, 2000, pp. 185-88, p. 228, footnote 38). Asleson notes that Summer Night was perhaps inspired by the Portland Vase, one of the most highly-prized objects in the British Museum, London.  In his preparatory studies and the final painting, Moore emulated the frieze-like composition in the vase, featuring loosely draped lounging woman on a warm summer's eve. During the six years he labored over the creation of Summer Night he conceived of the seated figure in Hairpins and devoted a number of works to her, including the present highly finished watercolor. 

 

The same seated figure - turning slightly to retrieve a hairpin while she holds her upswept coiffure - appears on the far left of Composition Study for a Summer Night (figure 1). A colored chalk sketch entitled Reflections (sold Sotheby's, Belgravia, October 6, 1980) also depicts this female figure, with the addition of a beaded necklace and seated upon patterned bench, elements also present in Hairpins. Ultimately Moore decided against this form for the final composition of Summer Night.

 

Oil sketches and highly-finished watercolors were integral to Moore's artistic process for creating his large, finished oils. The watercolor An Open Book (fig. 2) features a female figure from the trio in the ambitious oil painting Reading Aloud (1884, Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum). Like Hairpins, An Open Book exhibits Moore's highly annotated margins and his use of a grid system. In Hairpins, Moore appears to have considered a small marble sculpture in the wall niche, but ultimately decided upon a grooved white vase.